Sexual abuse of juvenile detainees was rampant in youth centers across Illinois for more than two decades, according to a sweeping lawsuit filed Monday.
One claimant was about 14 years old when he was raped repeatedly – sometimes daily – in his cell by an employee who revoked his yard and phone privileges if he tried to protest, according to the suit.
Another, at about age 16 , was abused by a counselor at the facility who said she would “make him feel better” by performing oral sex on him, the lawsuit states. “What’s truly outrageous is that the perpetrators were the Illinois Youth Center staff,” attorney Jerome Block told the Tribune on Monday. “They were correctional officers, they were counselors, they were even supervisors. The very people with the responsibility of keeping our clients safe were actually the ones that were perpetrating the abuse.”
Youths in custody are particularly powerless and vulnerable, the lawsuit notes, saying the state should have known it had a systemic problem after a“These are children that come into the juvenile justice system and what they really need is help, they need education, they need rehabilitation, and they need to be treated in a manner that helps them get on the right path and lead productive lives,” Block said. “That is what the juvenile justice system is supposed to deliver.
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